Wednesday Evening
June 20, 2005
Leviticus 23:1-44
“Holy Assemblies: Feasting to the Lord”
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III
If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to
Leviticus 23, as we continue to work our way through the Book of Leviticus and
see the gospel displayed in all its Old Testament glory.
We’ve come to a passage that is about holy
feasting. We see consecutive instructions given about the various feasts of
Israel…about the people’s observation of them. But before we read the passage
together, let me just outline a few of the things that we see as part of its
content.
First of all, in verse 3 you see the instructions
pertaining to the Sabbath Day, the seventh day rest that the people of God were
not only to observe in their homes, but which they were to observe in holy
convocation; that is, in solemn public assembling together to worship God.
Then, in verses 4-8 there are instructions
pertaining to the Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread; then, in verses
9-14 there are instructions pertaining to the Feast of First Fruits, the harvest
feast; then in verses 15-22 the Feast of Weeks; in verses 23-25, the Feast of
Trumpets; in verses 26-32, the Day of Atonement; and finally, in verses 33-44,
the Feast of Booths, or what was called because of the King James translation,
the Feast of Tabernacles, once upon a time.
Now, these feasts provide us the structure of the
chapter’s instruction, but the point is basically simple throughout the passage:
this passage affirms over and over in different ways that the Lord is the Lord
of our time; that our time belongs to Him. And the very insertion of the
seventh day Sabbath and this cycle of feasts into the experience of the
Israelite impressed upon the Israelite believer that God is the God of my time,
that all of my time belongs to God, and that I set apart some of that time in
recognition of His lordship over me, and as an opportunity to praise Him for the
manifold gifts He has given to me by making me, by creating me, by redeeming me,
by providing for me, by forgiving me, by giving me a hope for the future. And
we’re going to see that repeatedly emphasized in the language of this chapter,
but bear it in mind. We don’t have a lot of time for exposition because it’s a
long passage, but God’s word is more important than anything else, so we’re
going to read the whole chapter. Before we do, let’s ask for God’s blessing on
the reading and hearing of His word.
Lord God, this is Your word. We thank You for
it. Nourish us spiritually by Your truth. Grow us in grace by Your truth.
Disciple us by Your truth. Glorify Yourself in our hearts by Your truth. We ask
it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hear the word of God.
“The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of
Israel, and say to them, The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as
holy convocations–My appointed times are these: For six days work may be done;
but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation.
You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.
“‘These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which
you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. In the first month, on the
fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. Then on the
fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the
Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall
have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days
you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy
convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel,
and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and
reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your
harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be
accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. Now on the day
when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect
for a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths
of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a
soothing aroma, with its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine. Until this same
day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither
bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute
throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
“‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the
Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there
shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after
the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.
You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave
offering, made of two-tenths of a bushel; they shall be of a fine flour, baked
with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. Along with the bread, you shall
present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd,
and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain
offering and their libations, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the
Lord. You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs
one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest shall then wave them
with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the
Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. On this same day you
shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall
do no laborious work. It shall be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling
places throughout your generations.
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not
reap to the very corners of your field, nor gather the gleaning of your harvest;
you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God.’
“Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of
Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have
a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do
any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘On exactly the tenth day of
this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for
you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the
Lord. Neither shall you do any work on this same day, for it is a day of
atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord you God. If there
is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off
from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that
person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do work at all. It
is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling
places. It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your
souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you
shall keep your Sabbath.’
“Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of
Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths
for seven days to the Lord. On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall
do no laborious work of any kind. For seven days you shall present an offering
by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and
present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall do no
laborious work.
“‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim
as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord–burnt offerings
and grain offerings, sacrifices and libations, each day’s matter on its own
day–besides those of the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts, and
besides all your votive and freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.
“ ‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventy month, when you have
gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for
seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on
the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm
branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall
rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as
a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute
throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You
shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in
booths, so that your generation may know that I had the sons of Israel live in
booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’
“So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the
Lord.”
Amen. And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired,
and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts.
Now, it really is an extraordinarily rich chapter,
and we really could do a series of expositions on each of the feasts and the
biblical symbolism that is attached to them. We could spend time looking at how
these things are picked up in the New Testament. For instance, one of the
things that strikes you immediately is the description of the feasts which
occurred fifty days after the feast of harvest, how that works out in relation
to Jesus’ resurrection and ascension and the Day of Pentecost and the coming of
the Holy Spirit. You can see there is rich and ample room for new covenant
exposition throughout this passage, but let me look at the original intent for a
few moments, and emphasize with you this: throughout the passage it is clear
that in the observation of these festivals, in the setting apart of time in
order to worship the Lord with God’s people, and in the cessation of our regular
labors, the people of God, Israel, are being called upon to acknowledge the
lordship of God.
Two or three over-arching themes come out. First of
all, God is Lord. One way God’s lordship is made clear is that He is shown to
be the lord of their time. You remember Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol? You remember his complaint about Christmas? “It’s just an
excuse to pick a man’s pocket!” You see what he was complaining about. It
meant that his workers stopped working, you couldn’t earn any money on that day;
stores shut down, people expected you to give them gifts…it cut into his
profit margin! Well, can you imagine what Scrooge would have done if he had
lived in Israel? Have you tallied up how many weeks out of the year the people
are not supposed to do anything, because they’re supposed to be concentrating
only on the Lord? Not only once every seven days, but a compound of many, many
weeks are designed to be devoted only to the Lord. No work is to be done. It
is a way in which God’s lordship over all of life, including our time, is
indicated.
You know, in a strange way that ought to especially
hit home to us in our day and time, because time is probably more important to
you and to the people of our generation that it has ever been before. Most
people would tell you today if they had to make the choice between time and
money, they’d want more time. And here God is saying ‘You give Me your time,
because I am your Lord.’
Secondly, notice that this is a way that God’s
people are set apart. If you are in Istanbul during Ramadan, you know it. The
whole Islamic world is celebrating their special feast day to their false god
Allah. But you know it. It interrupts business, it makes certain things
inconvenient; and with strict and orthodox Muslims, you can only have limited
contact within that time of Ramadan. It sets them apart.
Well, that’s precisely what the one true God, the
Lord God of Israel, intended by these feast days. It set them apart from the
nations around them. Think of it: if they were having to cease all their work,
trade ceased with their neighboring tribes and cultures interaction ceased,
because these feast times were given over to…what? Holy convocations to the
Lord — corporate worship. They couldn’t be interacting and interfacing with
pagan cultures around them because they were too busy…what? Gathering together
to give to the Lord the glory due His name. And so by that very fact, God was
setting them apart through the appointment of these feasts.
And then of course, following on that last point,
did you notice how many times the phrase was used, ‘the holy convocations which
you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them”? Did you notice how many
times that phrase ‘holy convocations’ popped up? The emphasis of this passage
on the priority of corporate worship, God’s people gathering for the express
purpose of meeting with Him, giving to Him the glory due His name, and receiving
from Him the benefits through His means of grace–these major themes are evident
throughout the passage. But let me hasten through some of the sections to remind
you of some sub-themes that are quite important.
First of all, look at verse 3, because here the
basic day of all holy days is mentioned. It’s the seventh day Sabbath day of
Israel, and here we’re told that it is a Sabbath of complete rest and a holy
convocation: “You shall not do any work.” There was nothing better than the
Sabbath Day occurring as it did on a weekly cycle to remind the people of God
that God was the Lord of time. They had to trust that He would provide for them
even though they were taking off one-seventh of the year from work.
But think of the blessing of that, my friends.
We’ve emphasized this before. These people had been slaves for 430 years, and
now through the Sabbath Day, God, the Lord of Israel and the liberator of Israel
from the tyrant, says to the Israelites, ‘I am giving you seven and a half weeks
of mandatory vacation every year. You may not work, slave…slave who has been
working 365 days a year…you may not work seven and a half weeks out of the
year. What a blessing that Sabbath Day was to them, and how beautifully it set
forth the truth that God is the Lord of time.
But then, look at verses 4-8, because there we see
the description of the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread. They were to
observe this feast in the first month, on the fourteenth day; then on the
fifteenth day, and the seven days following on the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
What is this feast to remind them of? It is to remind them of the Lord’s
redemption of them out of Egypt. In other words, they are to solemnly remember
that it is the Lord who has redeemed them. God has woven feasts into their
annual calendar whereby the people of God are required to remember that God
bought them out of slavery, and into the freedom that they enjoy. The freedom
that they enjoy is the gift of God.
I was listening to an interview on either National
Public Radio or BBC World Service this past week with Newt Gingrich, and it was
very interesting. They were interviewing him about his Civil War novels. You
know he’s written these three novels that sort of do what they call an ‘active
history’ or a fictionalized history of the Civil War: What if Lee had won at
Gettysburg? And then what would have happened if the battle between Lee and
Grant had gone on in Maryland instead of Virginia? And what would have happened
if….? You know, that sort of reconstruction…it’s an interesting thing. The
North still wins, by the way, even in his reconstructed history! But in the
course of this conversation they were asking him about several things, and it
wandered to the whole issue of democracy in other countries. And Newt Gingrich,
in the midst of this discussion about his novels and this and that and the
other, said, “Let me tell you the unique thing about America in all the world.”
And I wanted to hear…OK, what’s the unique thing? And he said, “Here’s the
unique thing: America is the only republic or democracy in the world that says
that we get our rights from the Creator; that those rights don’t come from the
people or from a constitution, but they come from the Creator.”
Well, here is Israel declaring that their freedom
does not come from some sort of social contract or mutual agreement or
constitutional document: their freedom comes…where? It comes from the Creator
who redeemed them out of Egypt.
And then, if you look at verses 9-14, in the Feast
of First Fruits, these people have been laboring all year long, and now the
harvest comes in, and what happens? For a week they can’t touch it…and the
first fruits are given to God. And what does that say? Everything comes from
God. We worked hard for it; we really had to work hard for it; God expected us
to work hard for it…but ultimately it comes from God, comes from His hand.
Then in verses 15-22, the Feast of Weeks, when once
again they give thanks to God for His provision, what’s going on there? A
recognition of God’s providence. It’s the Lord who has provided for our
bounty. In fact, we’re going to recognize God’s providence so much that we’re
not going to glean the corners of our fields; since God provided richly for us,
we’re going to provide for those who are needy and for the aliens who are
sojourning in the land.
Oh, we could go on in this rich passage. We have
only scratched the surface. The Lord is declaring here to us His lordship over
us, over our time, over our food, over our souls. Let’s pray.
Lord God, we thank You for Your word. Enrich us
by it in trust and faithfulness. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Would you stand for God’s blessing.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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